Hyperbolic, as a good representative of a part of being Argentine, Borges would say, Javier Milei attacked the most sensitive point of Catholicism by saying “social justice is a robbery.” Then he adding that “it is an aberration”, “unfair”, “violent” and “an unequal treatment in front of the law.” His attack on Pope Francis was not to the person but to the ideas that Catholicism represented.
Max Weber one Protestant ethics and the spirit of capitalism He attributed the first greater development of capitalism in countries with a Protestant majority, especially Calvinists, than in countries with a majority of Catholics, to the different assessment of one and the other, on the accumulation of wealth. For Weber in Catholicism, its “emphasis on contemplative life and the renunciation of material goods do not favor capital accumulation.”
And although Catholicism also did not reject the accumulation of capital, and also that Protestantism valued work and private property, the Catholic Church following Aristotle who considered the “sterile” money, during the Middle Ages forbidden that interests for loans be charged, because money by itself should not be the way to produce wealth, considering it usury. Saint Thomas Aquinas in his Theological sum It attributed to usury the character of serious sin and during that time only the Jews could do so, because they were only prevented from charging interests of their same religion.
These do not like authoritarians
The exercise of professional and critical journalism is a fundamental pillar of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe they are the owners of the truth.
Unlike medieval Catholicism, Juan Calvino did not consider the collection of interest intrinsically immoral, to the extent that they were not excessive nor the creditor took advantage of a vulnerable debtor. Position that the Catholic Church went to incorporate after understanding the developer that has the credit.
The evil of which you have to free themselves are opposite for Milei and for Leo XIV
Perhaps the over -acting of Javier Milei to Judaism in his presidential career has connection with considering Pope Francis “the evil on earth” and considering “social justice a robbery.” The term social justice begins to spread from the encyclical Of the revolutionary of 1891 that gives rise to the social doctrine of the Church and what we could call the Vatican economic School, opposite more than any other to the Austrian Economic School, and the interpretation of the libertarians.
The best expression of the confrontation that both economic schools have in Argentina, was the debate that Javier Milei made with Juan recordois in 2022 being ascending candidate, there immortalized that people have the right to choose to starve and sell parts of his body.
That is why the praise to Pope Francis de Milei, his trip to the Vatican on next weekend for the official ceremony of the beginning of the papacy of Leo XIV, who with his single name already marked his position on Of the revolutionary And social justice, and almost ridiculous the meme of a lion face in papal suit confirming that presidential communication does not care that what they spread has some livelihood with reality, only the construction of their own.
The term “Social justice” It was first used by the Italian Jesuit Luigi Taparelli d’Azeglio in his work published between 1840 and 1843 entitled Theoretical essay of natural law supported by the facts. Leo XIII takes it as a concept in his encyclical Of the revolutionary after being adopted by intellectual and social circles of the Italy of the time.
And ended up being explicitly used in the encyclical Forty years To celebrate the forty years of Of the revolutionary In 1931 by Pope Pius XI and another thirty years later in 1961, in the Encyclical Mother and teacher by Pope John XXIII. What Pope Paul VI repeated in his encyclical Peoples program In 1967 and Pope John Paul II in his encyclicals Work exercising 1981, Anxiety of social situations 1987 and at one hundred years of Of the revolutionary con Hundredth of the year In 1991. reaching the present used “social justice” in their encyclical Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 in Love in truth And obviously, Francisco in Laudato yes 2015 and All brothers of 2020.
That is, “the evil on earth” is not for Milei Pope Francis but the social doctrine of the Church, that is, the Catholic Church. The contrast between the thoughts of the president and the praise to Francisco, now to Leo XIV and the Vatican, describe the libertarian communication strategy that does not care because there is evidence that supports his words. It contrasts with the consistency of a classic and intellectually honest conservative as the economist Alberto Benegas Lynch, who during the closure of Javier Milei proposed that Argentina suspend its diplomatic relations with the Holy See “while the totalitarian spirit prevails there.”
The phrase that marked the beginning of the papacy of Leo XIV this Friday when appearing in front of San Pedro Colmada Square, was: “The evil will not prevail.” But evil for Milei and the Vatican are exactly the opposite. They value the use of the same word: “the evil” and “the evil”, which in its philosophical meaning is absence of good, in theological is deprivation of good. To the latter, Milei and León IV refer, the evil of which you have to free yourself.
HM CP
